EBAY MAKES FESTIVE PREP, BULKS UP GLOBAL OFFERING ON PAY TM MALL

eBay, Paytm Mall set aside ~30 crore for promotions and customer acquisition

Eager to make their presence felt this festive season, global online marketplace major ebay and Paytm Mall are bulking up their offers of global catalogue.

Paytm Mall, a company of Paytm E-commerce , had recently received an investment from ebay for a 5.5 per cent stake.

In the run-up to the festive sales, Paytm Mall on Sunday announced that ebay’s global inventory is now available on its platform while it prepares for the upcoming festive season. The catalogue of over a million products includes categories such as toys, collectibles, fashion, automobile accessories, gifts, and decor festive item.

“Paytm Mall is rapidly expanding its World Store, which makes international brands available to Indian buyers at its platform. The company also aims to become the launch partner for international brands to cater to the Indian market,” the company said.

The platform said it had eliminated the challenges related to forex, Customs duties, delivery costs, timelines and returns. “Paytm Mall wants to establish itself as the largest player for this segment, with a

committed focus to increase its market share. It has been partnering with leading brands across categories to ensure secured doorstep deliveries within 10-15 days, including clearances,” the company said.

Under the partnership, ebay

and Paytm Mall have even set aside around ~30 crore, especially for the promotion of the ebay catalogue.

“The Paytm Mall World Store is the largest gateway for international sellers and boutique brands to sell their products in India. Our partnership with ebay has enabled us to increase the variety of product range to cater to the retailers and shoppers need. We will invest ~30 crores to promote the catalogue and acquire new users. This festive season, we are focused on offering the best assortment of products to our customers,” Srinivas Mothey, senior vicepresident at Paytm Mall, said.

Under the new partnership, while ebay sellers get the opportunity to reach out to new customers, Paytm Mall buyers will get access to international brands from the US, UK and Europe, which will guarantee a wide selection of global inventory.

Earlier this year, ebay bought 5.5 per cent stake in Paytm Mall. While the deal size has been kept under wraps, sources close to the development said ebay invested $160 million in Paytm Mall, which is valued at $3 billion.

The company has over 300,000 merchant partners. It ended the last financial year at ~13,000 crore and is targeting ~17,000 crore in gross merchandise value (GMV) in a contribution-positive manner as it claims to have cut costs by one-third. While at its peak, it was spending almost

~200 crore, in a month it is down to ~30 crore.